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THE DEVELOPMENT 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND DWELLING HOUSE 



BY HENRY B. WORTH, NEW BEDFORD, MASS. 



READ BEFORE THE LYNN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



MARCH 10, 1910 



FROM VOLUME XIV OF THE REGISTER OF THE SOCIETY 




LYNN, MASS. 

FRANK S. WRITTEN, PRINTER 

1911 



THE DEVELOPMENT 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND DWELLING HOUSE 

BY HENRY B. WORTH, NEW BEDFORD, MASS. 

READ BEFORE THE LYNN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

MARCH lo, 1910 

FROM VOLUME XIV OF THE REGISTER OF THE SOCIETY 




LYNN, MASS. 

FRANK S. WHITTEN, PRINTER 

1911 



JUL - 1911 



^ 

^ 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND 
DWELLING-HOUSE 

Henry B. Worth, New Bedford, Mass., March lo, igio 



The Department of Historical Research that appeals 
most keenly to popular taste is the determination of the 
age of ancient houses. But to reach definite results the 
student must pursue three lines of investigation : i : The 
location, position, shape, size, arrangement and construc- 
tion of the house must be carefully considered. As far as 
they were able, the early settlers grouped their houses in a 
center around a town square or common, and later, when 
the demands of the people required, and safety from Indian 
depredations was assured, they built in more remote parts 
of the town. The first houses were near the salt water 
where the white men could find refuge. Not before the 
King Philip's War (1675-1676) did settlers venture far 
away from the sea. The early houses generally fronted 
the south, without regard to their relations to adjacent roads, 
and consequently are often found standing end or back to 
the nearest street. Volumes have been written concerning 
the construction of houses. In the first place it is necessary 
to decide whether the entire structure is of one date or an 
aggregation of additions and alterations of different ages. 
Then the size of brick in chimneys is often of significance, 
because the Colonists manufactured brick of different 
dimensions than were made in European yards, and were 
more crude and imperfect in finish. It was not until after 



1700 that New England people generally were able to 
import the small and finely constructed product of the old 
country. 

The frame and method of joining furnish a valuable 
guide in determining the period of construction. It is 
essential next to consider the history of the town, when 
and by whom it was settled, and in what section the 
homes were first located. The history of social, economic 
and industrial conditions has an important bearing on the 
problem. Larger and finer houses would be found in a 
wealthy community than in a town of farmers. The most 
difficult part of the investigation is the examination of 
public and private records and the discovery of facts that 
are to be found only in ancient documents. The family 
history of all the owners of the land must be ascertained, 
and every stray fact compiled in deeds, wills, old diaries 
and account books . 

When all these facts have been collected and com- 
pared it is possible to reach a conclusion which will be very 
nearly correct. But such an investigation is possible onl}'' 
to persons of special training, and requires considerable 
time and travel when the registries are in wddely separated 
towns. Consequently, it is apparent that this interesting 
departnient of history must remain a sealed book to all 
except expert antiquaries unless there can be discovered 
some method of determining the age of ancient dwellings 
based chiefly upon an exterior examination of the house 
itself. If some such practical system could be used, which 
would attain reasonably approximate results, much of the 
story of the past would be revealed to persons travelling 
rapidl}^ through the country. 

By careful study and comparison of a large number 
of cases, it has been found that domestic architecture in 



New England has developed along well defined lines and 
in accordance with laws readily comprehended, and that 
when this development is understood the student is in pos- 
session of a system of examination which will 3neld results 
often surprisingly accurate. 

The first habitations were log cabins or cellars dug in 
hillsides. Very soon these were followed by small houses, 
rude and temporary in construction, that met the immedi- 
ate necessities of the settlers, but were of no permanent 
character. Having provided lor his family the best dwell- 
ing that was within his reach, the settler next turned his 
attention to the resources at his command. The long 
process of developing these resources can best be appreci- 
ated by reading the story as it appears in the usual first 
book of records of a New England town. Delicate ques- 
tions which arose in adjusting relations with the Indians ; 
establishment of mills, the church, school, tavern and 
store ; bringing the earth into a state of production ; these 
and other enterprises in their endless ramifications required 
nearly a generation to settle and determine, and there was 
little opportunity to accumulate a surplus beyond the mere 
necessities of life. From this it follows as a general rule 
neither permanent nor enduring houses were built during 
the first twenty years after the settlement of any community. 
A few isolated exceptions to this rule may be cited, and if 
such be authenticated by careful investigation it will be 
found that they are confined mostly to the mercantile 
centers of New England particularly, Portsmouth, Boston, 
Providence and Newport. So universally sound has this 
principle been proved that the most convincing evidence 
should be required to substantiate a claim that any house 
was built at an earlier period. For 3'ears it was claimed 
that the Peter Tufts House of Medford (the so-called 



Craddock house) was built in 1634, the same year that the 
town was settled ; but it has iinally been established that 
its date was forty years later. 




Peter Tufts or Craddock House, Medford, Mass. 

The second principle, which is the most important in 
the method under discussion, is that the leading men in 
New England in all communities and in each period 
adopted the same shape and style of house. In Colonial 
days there were no architects, and as far as architecture 
may have existed, it was exercised by the carpenter and 
was very simple. The leading men were generally of one 
rank and substantially of the same degree of wealth, and 
for this reason had very similar tastes. Both labor and 
materials would lend themselves more readily to one style 
of building than to several. Mechanics could learn to build 
one st3^1e of house more easily and at less cost than to 



5 

accomplish such variety as existed in Virginia, therefore a 
single style became the dominant type throughout New 
England in each period, subject, however, to the single 
modification that in remote sections a given style lingered 
after it had been discarded in the larger communities ; thus 
Nantucket held tenaciously to the lean-to style forty years 
after it had been abandoned in Massachusetts Bay. 




Warner House, Portsmouth, N. H. 
These dominant styles being selected by the leading 
men required the most enduring materials that could be 
procured, and were constructed by the best mechanics, and 
these are the houses in existence at the present date. 
When a particular house is recognized as being one of a 
leading type, the problem is to decide in what period that 
style prevailed, and the approximate age of the house can 
at once be decided. The system, therefore, is a study of 



the successive types. Instances may be met where a house 
was built according to a plan which did not come into 
general use until years later. Tlius the Warner house, of 
Portsmouth, N. II., commenced by Captain iVrchibald 
Macpheadres in 1718 and completed in 1723, was a st3de 
of brick house that did not become common in Southern 
New England until after 1826. The two-gambrel roof 
additions to the Fairbanks house, of Dedham, if built in 
1660, as claimed, precede that style at least half a century, 
but such instances are not sufficiently numerous to create 
confusion. 




Fairhanks^House, Dedham, Mass. 

It is also apparent that in some places, on account of 
local influence, special styles of building were adopted not 
to be discovered elsewhere in New England. Thus the 



stone end house which was the earliest Rhode Ishmd style, 
is found nowhere else in Massachusetts except in the 
adjoining section of Buzzard's Bay in the vicinity of New 
Bedford, and it prevailed in this locality because the early 
settlers came from Rhode Island. 




Dr/Flagg — Billy Gray House, Marion Street. 

The event which terminated a particular style was 
always a war, and the order of development appears to 
have been as follows : 

At a given date a certain type of dwelling was in 
general adoption by the leading residents of New England, 
and continued to be the prevailing style until a war 
occurred. During the conflict, business would be paralyzed, 
building operations would cease, and the attention of the 
inhabitants would be directed to the events of the war. 
After peace had been declared, a period of recovery would 



ensue which usually comprised several years, and this was 
succeeded by an age of prosperity during which the inhab- 
itants were able to accumulate property and wealth. 
Then would appear an interest in house building, and at 
this point it is observed that the public taste had always 
changed ; former ideals and methods in art, education, 
religion and economics had become modified and the old 
order yielded place to new. A different style of dwelling 
was adopted as the prevailing type of that period, and the 
same cycle of events would be repeated. 




Potter House, Westpoit, Mass. 

The selection of such a prevailing style was a com- 
promise between the needs and desires of the inhabitants 
on the one hand, and their resources on the other. The 
land owners would build the largest and best houses the}^ 
could afford, and in the large towns there would be found 



a two-story house of a certain date, while on a farm there 
would be a house of the same style with but one story. 

In its interior arrangement, a dwelling house may be 
defined as a shelter to accommodate the four household 
purposes of cooking, eating, sleeping and holding social 
intercourse, and should therefore include a kitchen, dining- 
room, parlor and sleeping apartment. At first the houses 
had only one room, and this condition continued during 
the first period. The Potter house in Westport, built in 
1677, and still standing, was a stone end dwelling of one 
story and one room, eighteen feet square, with a loft under 
the roof. 




John Swain House. North Side, Polpis, Nantucket. 
Center Section 1673, °"^ story and one room. 

It was the prevailing Rhode Island style for a gener- 
ation before 1660. In other parts of the Colonies the 
lean-to style was adopted, like the Swain house at Nan- 



lO 



tucket, tlie lean-to roof sloping to the north covering a low 
space on the north side of the single room. Before the 
King Philip's War, two story houses had conie into general 
use, the upper story being devoted to sleeping rooms. 
The single room on the tirst floor was kitchen, dining-room 
and parlor. No house is known to exist in its original 
condition which was built previous to the King Philip's 
War. Claims are presented for an earlier origin of a few, 
but they have not been satisfactorily established, and in 
every case there have been more or less alterations from 
the original design. 




John Swain House, South Side, Polpis, Nantucket. 

After the King Philip's W^ar (1675- 1676) the next 
advance was made by building the lean-to house still larger 
and including another apartment used as a parlor. In 
such a house the sleeping rooms were in the second storv. 
On the first floor was the parlor, and another large room 



II 



used as kitchen and dining-room. This was the prevailing 
arrangement for a century after 1675. During this long 
period several styles of house had come and gone, but the 
interior furnished accommodations for sleeping, and a par- 
lor in a separate apartment ; but the kitchen and dining- 
room were in one room. 




Ivory Boardman House, Saugus. 

The style that was adopted after the Revolution was 
che full four-apartment house, and this interior arrangement 
has since prevailed. If a house is found designed to pro- 
vide a separate apartment for each household use, e.xcept 
in wealthy centers, it could not have been built before the 
Revolution. 

As practically all vestiges of house-building before 
1660 have disappeared, the King Philip War is found to 
be a convenient starting point to classify old houses. If 



12 



any construction of an earlier date remains it is generally 
included as a portion of a later structure. At this date the 
leading type in New England was the lean-to, and the 
purpose of the long, sloping north roof was for protection 
against the north winds of winter. In such a house the 
low space on the north side was generally a store-room which 
separated the living apartment from the cold air outside. 
This style of house, therefore, always fronted south with- 




Abijah Boardman House (front) Saugus. 

out regard to the location of adjacent roads, and frequently 
these old dwellings stand back or end to the highway. 
The house before 1670 having one room in the first story, 
had the chimney at the end, as is shown in the view of the 
Potter House. Starting with the single two-story, lean-to 
house, the lower room serving as kitchen, dining-room and 
parlor, to obtain an additional apartment it was necessary 



^3 

to double the house, thus producing a structure with a 
chimne}' in the center. This was sometimes accomplished 
by adding the second half years after the house had been 
originally built. 




Abijah Boardman House (rear) Saugus. 

The center chimney lean-to was almost the onl}^ style 
from 1675 to 1700, a single exception having been noted 
in the case of the Joseph Putnam house of Danvers, which 
was built previous to 1690, but was probably full two-story 
front and rear. 

But the war that continued from 1700 to 17 13 directed 
attention away from house building, and when the next 
period of prosperity opened the public taste was ready for 
a new design. The choice fell upon the gambrel roof 
which dominated the popular fancy until the beginning of 
the French and Indian Wars (i 754-1 763). This style of 



H 




Hitchings-Draper-Hawkes House, Saugus. 

house followed no uniform rule of interior arrangement 
except that rarely was there a separate apartment for 
kitchen or dining-room, but the chimney was usually near 
the center. At Nantucket this style never appealed to 
the inhabitants, but during the period when this tvpe 
prevailed elsewhere the Nantucket Qiiakers clung to the 
ancient lean-to. The gambrel roof has alvvavs been the 
favorite style, as indicated by the fact that so man}^ built 
one hundred and seventy-five years ago are still in exist- 
ence, and also that in recent years this design has become 
very common among houses of all grades. It is a durable 
and economical plan built on the principle of the arch, and 
will endure the effect of the elements more easily than any 
other design. 

The gambrel roof period closed with the commence- 



15 

ment of the French and Indian War. Then followed seven 
years of conflict, and several more of turmoil and unrest 
before the Revolution. If a settled peace had been 
established, follovAed b}^ the usual period of prosperity, a 
new style of house would have been adopted. In many 
sections one type attracted considerable attention. It was 
a double dwelling of two stories without the lean-to, and 



/ \ 




Joseph Putnam House, Danvers, Mass. 
with a large center chimney. In the back part of the 
house was a large apartment devoted to kitchen and 
dining-room, and in many instances provided with a fire- 
place of great dimensions. Houses of this design were 
located to front the adjoining road. Qiiite likely if the 
opportunit}'- had permitted this might have been the leading 
style at that date, but the Revolutionar}^ War (1775-1783) 
followed too closely, and political and industrial affairs 



i6 



were unsettled. With the Revolutionary War the career of 
the center-chimney house as the prevailing type in New 
England terminated. After seven years of struggle, and 
several more of recuperation a period of prosperity began 
in 1790 and the people of New England were prepared to 
adopt a new style. Having more extensive resources, they 
selected a design considerably in advance of any previous 
plan. In its interior it was so arranged that the kitchen 
and dining-room were separated. 




Colonel Frederick ]?reed House, 273 lioston Street. 

During a few years before and after 1800 the Dutch- 
cap house, sometimes having a center chimney and in other 
cases two chimneys were frequentl}' selected by men of 
ample means. It was a house the roof of which sloped in 
all directions from the center, and resembled the covering 
commonly used by farmers to place over their ha3^stacks. 



17 




Otis Johnson House built on I'edeial Street 1832. reiiio\ed 
to 62 Mall Street i8S8. 

Some of the great houses of this date were built according 
to this plan. It was possible to construct a tine parapet 
rail entirely surrounding the roof; but this type did not 
meet with such general favor as its great rival which was 
a rectangular double two-story house with a central hall- 
way extending from front to rear, and on each side two 
massive chimneys. Regular and symmetrical in outline, it 
possessed many attractive elements in design and was 
durable, commodious and comfortable. After a century of 
trial, it is still a favorite st3de, as is evidenced by the fact 
that so many of them are still retained in all of the New 
England cities. It was the prevailing type between 1790 
and 181 2, but ceased to be the controlling style after that 
period except in country places where it lingered a few 
years later. 



Then followed three years of destructive war, and 
several of recovery, and business finally became reestab- 
lished during the administration of John Quincy Adams, 
which has been designated the "era of good feeling." 
Then were laid the foundations of modern fortunes, and as 
might be expected the New England communities were 
ready for a still further advanced style of house. In many 
respects it was like its predecessor, but the change, being 




joM^ph Moulton House, built iSoS, 397 Boston Street. 

in the interior, was occasioned by the demands of larger 
social gatherings. In the two-chimney house it was not pos- 
sible to connect any two out of the four rooms in the lower 
story, and on this account a large company was accom- 
modated in two or more of the rooms. The change now 
adopted was to construct the house so that the front room 
and that in the rear could be turned into a single apartment 



19 

by folding or sliding doors. In order to accomplish this 
object the great chimney of the earlier design was omitted, 
and a smaller chimney placed at the end of the house in 




Jonathan Tarbell House, built about iSoo, Ljnnfield. 

each room. In the new design, therefore, there would be 
four chimneys, two in each end of the structure, one for 
each of the lower rooms. In such a design, the kitchen 
and servants' quarters were usually placed in an addition. 
This was the plan of the great houses in Salem, New 
Bedford and Bristol, where rapidly acquired wealth was 
placed at the disposal of architects who produced some of 
the finest house designs in the United States. 

This plan continued to be the prevailing style in wood, 
stone or brick until after the war with Mexico (1846-1847). 

The four-chimney double house, of which the Parsons 
Cooke and the Davis-Newhall houses are examples, is a 



20 



type which is peculiar to Lynn, where many other examples 
still remain. 

The full development of the dwelling-house had been 
reached in this period, and no further progress could be 
made except to increase the number of rooms for the use of 
each household. While the study of ancient houses does 
not require a consideration of the domestic architecture of 
the past half century, yet the evolution has been progressing 
along lines widely different from those which governed 




-^yr-.jai 



House of Rev. Parsons Cooke, D. D., 697 Western Avenue, 
the progression during the first two centuries after the 
settlement of the country. The great fortunes that have 
been accumulated since the Civil War have caused a wide 
demand for architectural talent, and the course of develop- 
ment has been in two general directions. First, There have 
arisen requirements to encompass within the walls of the 



2 1 

mansion, rooms intended for many other uses tha^l were 
demanded by people of former times. In addition to a 
kitchen, dining-room, parlor and sleeping apartments, there 
may be over twenty additional apartments according to the 
taste and ambition of the house owner. The ingenuity of the 
architect seems to be taxed to the uttermost to multiply the 
different apartments that are combined in a modern structure 
called a dwelling. Second, The aim of each millionaire 




Mayor Edward L. Davis and Judge Thomas B. Newhall House, 
corner Summer and Astor Streets. 

is to surpass the achievements of all competitors, and 
so the architect is required to produce a design differing 
from all others in shape, arrangement and ornamentation. 
During this period there has been no standard type that 
has received popular approval, and all activity has been 
directed toward novelty and an ever increasing number of 
apartments. 



22 



A necessary condition precedent to the development 
of fine houses, has always been successful attainments in 
maritime pursuits. Houses distinguished for design and 
finish are to be found chiefly in the seaport towns of New 
England. In this respect Lynn never achieved distinction, 
and consequently has few houses of the period following 
the War of 1812, when the wealth gathered from com- 
merce in the Indies was expended in magnificent dwellings 




Houses of Jedediah Nevvhall, Nathaniel Massey — Ezekiel Rand 
and Nathaniel Sargent, 459-473 Boston Street, built about 1795. 

which have distinguished Salem and Portsmouth. 

The central hallway, two-chimney house so popular 
in the southern parts of the state for a decade before and 
after 1800, did not gain as great favor in Lynn, although 
a few of this st}'le are still standing. The contemporary 
Dutch-cap is also represented. 



23 



There are remaining a few of the two-story, center- 
chimney houses, built in the short period between the 
French and Indian War and the Revolution. 

The deep interest in the gambrel-roof that was wide- 
spread through the Colonies existed in Lynn. A unique 
group once stood on the north side of the Boston stage- 
road, illustrating three periods of development. 




John Burrill House, Saugus. 

In the center was a Dutch cap of the type of 1800 ; on 
the west side the Jedediah Newhall gambrel of 1735 and 
to east a central chimney mansion of 1765. 

All of the foregoing types may be observed in most of 
the sections of the Commonwealth, but Essex County is 
the most promising lield to investigate the ancient lean-to. 
Capable of withstanding the elements for over two cen- 
turies, their owners have been willing to allow them to 



24 

stand as examples of the oldest existing houses occupied bv 
the settlers of New England. 

The Abijah Boardman house at Saugus may be 
selected as among the hnest and oldest examples. It will 
be found to contain all the features of construction that 
were in vogue immediately before the King Philip's War. 
The pilastered chimney of recent workmanship but of 
undoubted ancient design ; the second story deepl}- over- 
hanging the front ; the sills projecting into the rooms and 
at the front door cut down half the depth of the timber to 
reduce the height to step over : curious beading on the 
summers and interior beams ; worm-eaten braces connecting 
corner-posts with girts, somewhat preserved in the mixture 
of brick and mortar which tilled the space between the 
outer and inner walls. These and other structural pecul- 
iarities mark the age of the house approximately at 1670, 
subject to modification based on careful documentarv 
investigation. 

Until the dates of these Colonial dwellings have been 
finally determined by thorough study there will be a ten- 
dency to claim for them a more remote antiquity than the 
facts warrant. But the only sound principle to follow is to 
require strict proof of the date of construction of any house 
alleged to have been erected before 1670. 



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